Our 2023 / 2024 Herts league campaign opened with an away fixture at Stevenage. Our top 2 boards dropped out on the day, but fortunately 2 replacement were available at short notice. We would be out graded on every board. 70 minutes plus 10 seconds per move, as per league rules.
Herts CA : Herts League – Division 2
Monday 16-October-2023
Stevenage 1 Borehamwood
Board 1 : Amato, Giampiero (b) 2068 0-1 Rubeck, Jonathan 
1973
Board 2 : Robinson, Dominic 1883 1/2 Kent, Anthony R 1806
Board 3 : Reilly, Gerard 1793 1-0 Sear, Kevin 1631
Board 4 : Anigbo, Afamefuna 1788 0-1 Williams, Stephen 1670
Board 5 : Rawlings, Stephen L 1778 1-0 Garfield, Harvey 1492
Match Score : 2.5 – 2.5
On Board 3, Kevin lost a rook which put us one down. Board 2 was a somewhat irregular Staunton Gambit. The match ended in a draw by repetition as black’s rook moved from g8 to g7 (and back again) and white’s Bishop from h7 to d3 (and back again). In fact, computer suggests that after 22.. Bd3, black should play 23…..h6. . Then 24. g3 is met by …Bf4!.with initiative
On Board 4, Steve won his opponents queen for a rook, bishop and pawn. After winning the bishop, he comfortably won the match. Harvey had a decent position with at least a draw on board 5, but the position went astray in time trouble. On Board 1, Black had 3 extra pawns in a Rook, opposite coloured Bishops and pawn ending. Jonathan manged to pull back to only one pawn down, but black with very little time and relying on the 10 second per move increment kept pressing for a win. Unfortunately, black boxed himself in a bit and missed that whites bishop move from c7 to f4 was actually checkmate.
Therefore the match was drawn!!
Borehamwood Chess club 